Recommendation 3

HM Government Not Addressed

The Government is supporting coastal communities to adapt to the impacts of coastal erosion. This includes locally developed long-term strategies which strengthen adaptation and avoid inappropriate development in vulnerable areas. The government has no plans to explore government-backed insurance for coastal erosion and landslides. Flooding is generally an insurable risk because it is sudden, uncertain, and event-based. This enables risk to be pooled and priced within a functioning private insurance market, with Flood Re operating as a reinsurance mechanism to support affordability where that market exists. By contrast, coastal erosion is a typically known, permanent and progressive risk, rather than an unforeseen event. The likelihood, location and long-term outcome are often well understood in advance, meaning losses are inevitable rather than uncertain. As a result, this risk is generally considered uninsurable, and standard home insurance policies typically exclude cover for losses arising from coastal erosion. Given the absence of a viable underlying insurance market, the Government does not consider there to be a case for acting as a reinsurer in this area. Instead, the most effective actions are to provide clear, accessible information about risk, support local planning and adaptation decisions, and ensure local authorities can work with affected communities to respond appropriately over time. In contrast, coastal flooding is usually covered within home insurance, and the Government and industry have already taken steps to support affordability of flood cover through Flood Re – a joint Government–industry reinsurance scheme that helps insurers manage the costs of high flood risks, enabling them to offer more affordable home insurance to households in flood-prone areas. 4. The Coastal Erosion Assistance Grant Committee recommendation, paragraph 24: Defra should commit to reviewing the current 2009 property purchase qualifying date and value of the Coastal Erosion Assistance Grant (CEAG) and, by June 2026, launch a structured assessment of whether this threshold and available grant remain justified. This review should examine evidence on historic and ongoing shortcomings in coastal erosion risk communication, alongside updated projections of climate driven changes in erosion rates and associated property exposure, and true costs of demolition. Defra should publish revised, evidence based eligibility criteria and an increased grant value by December 2026 together with the analysis that led to those revised figures and dates. The updated criteria and grant value should be implemented no later than April 2027.